Software clients operating on or in conjunction with a computer system are often used to access data stored at a server with which the computer system can establish communications, such as through a local area network (LAN). Clients are typically configured so that data on a data system is accessed using a particular protocol that is supported by the client. However, some data storage devices are also accessible through other protocols, each of which may support different features.
In an electronic mail (e-mail) system, for example, in which users have respective mailboxes on a mail server, a mailbox might be accessible using Outlook Web Access (OWA), Internet Mail Access Protocol (IMAP), or Post Office Protocol (POP). Although a user might have configured an e-mail client to access his or her mailbox using POP, mailbox access using the more capable OWA and IMAP, which provide more advanced features than POP, may be desired when another client is used, or when multiple mailboxes that support different protocols are to be accessed, for example.
Various prior art approaches have been developed for providing communications between systems and devices using different operating protocols. One such approach is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 6,615,212 to Dutta et al., in which a transcoding proxy server receives a request for content from a client machine. The transcoding proxy server retrieves the content from an originating server. The retrieved content is provided in a first format type. In response to a determination that an increase in efficiency would be obtained by allowing the client to process the content in the first format type prior to transcoding the content into a second format type, the transcoding proxy server sends the content to the client in the first format type.
Furthermore, in response to a determination that the client does not have content processing software for processing the content in the first format, the transcoding proxy server sends content processing software for the first format type along with the content in the first format type to the client. The transcoding proxy server then transcodes the content from the first format type into the second format type and sends the content in the second format to the client.
Despite such prior art approaches, further protocol translation and/or conversion functionality may be desirable in certain applications.